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“The forest is alive, it’s a living thing. See it and feel it. As the cold sets in, it may feel more dormant, but there is still more going on that may not be so obvious.” – Ed Lehming This may be a final nod to the season of leaves and color for a few months, but it seemed worth the post. As those who have known me over the years know,… Read More
“The final sunny fall day before the snow arrives and the lake pulses in anticipation, as if aware of the coming change, filling the bay with echoes of its life” – Ed Lehming This image was made yesterday. The forecasts called for snow today and I wanted one final day among the remaining colours of autumn. Many of the leaves had already fallen but pockets of colour remained along this point. Copper-tones… Read More
“Winter’s teeth bite deep into the shoreline and the familiar becomes alien and unknown” – Ed Lehming I could spend hours with my recent images from the shores of Lake Ontario at Sandbanks Provincial Park. It’s a quick 20 minute drive from home and seems to offer me something new every time I go there. I’m new to living this close to Lake Ontario (though I grew up in Scarborough but did… Read More
“The freeze is on, winter has us firmly in its grip, and the world is transformed from liquid to solid, seemingly overnight. The horizon is filled with ice and illusions” – Ed Lehming The title for the scene seemed fairly obvious to me, looking across Lake Ontario, particularly, Athol Bay in Ontario’s Prince Edward County. This bay is bounded by Lakeshore Lodge Point to the north and Salmon Point to the south…. Read More
“The view was surreal, there were mountains where the water was, only a few days before. The world had transformed fully to winter” – Ed Lehming As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, these lake mountains, or cryo-volcanoes, are something that’s unique to the Great Lakes, as far as I know. They probably occur in any cold weather, fresh water lake that is big enough to generate the wave force to create them…. Read More
“Water, in its many forms, continues to amaze me. From warm gentle streams in summer to the surprising frozen cryovolcanoes of the shelf-ice of the Great Lakes, water is ever changing” – Ed Lehming Today, I went for a walk along the shores of Lake Ontario. My destination, once more, was Lakeshore Beach in Sandbanks Provincial Park, which I have written about quite a bit lately. Just a few weeks ago, the… Read More
“Floating strangely above the ground, it soon becomes apparent why these tree roots look like they do. In nature, nothing happens by chance.” – Ed Lehming A few weeks ago, I visited Outlet Beach in Sandbanks Provincial Park. I had been there before on several occasions, but this day I walked along the edge of the sand dunes with the intention of photographing them and trying to see them in more detail…. Read More
“What appears to us as tenacity is often simply adaptation.” – Ed Lehming This cottonwood tree, seemingly overwhelmed by the ever-shifting drifting sand, is not alone. These trees have adapted with a root system that allows for fluctuations in sand depth. I’ve seen the tree trunks several feet above the sand, as if the trees are on stilts, and one like this buried to an equal depth. The root wood adapts, becoming… Read More
“Colour and movement danced before me as the waves wove a pattern of unexpected brightness under a winter sky, not yet locked in ice; they put on a final show for me.” – Ed Lehming I love water. I love how it moves, the sounds it makes, and the constant sense of being a living thing. I also like to accentuate movement by adding movement of my own. Intentional Camera Movement (ICM)… Read More
“The first real snows filled the gaps in the dunes, drifted snow covering the drifted sand. A seasonal change” – Ed Lehming I’ve been enjoying reviewing the images I made several days ago. That day brought some significant changes to an established photographic method and style. To get the images to communicate the nature of the environment, I had to change how I communicated as well. As those who follow this blog… Read More
“Seasons blend on the now barren beach and grasses dance in the mix of sand and snow” – Ed Lehming I’m continuing this series of images from December 2024 with this shot of the sand dune fringes. While the trees block the majority of eroding winds, it is the grasses that hold it all together. This variety of beach grass is known as Marram Grass Ammophila, and I never gave it much… Read More
“I’m continually amazed at how subtle changes in light can transform a landscape.” – Ed Lehming I’m continuing with my recent photo series of images made over two days at the local Sandbanks Provincial Park. It’s a big change for my photo practice. I have spent the past thirty years surrounded by forest trails and deliberately sought out waterfalls. Sandbanks is completely different. It is a 15-minute drive from my new home…. Read More
“Our views are influenced strongly by the past. Breaking the habit of the familiar is not easy, but opens up new possibilities” – Ed Lehming The evolution of this photo has been an interesting exercise for me. Over the years, I have developed certain “styles” that I go to because the results are pleasing to me. However, I don’t believe that doing things the same way is necessarily a good thing. There… Read More
“In the flat gray light of winter, the familiar landscapes change their character. The summer sand becomes an icy vista, serene but raw at the same time.” – Ed Lehming Above is another image made yesterday, Boxing Day in Canada, the day after Christmas. After a few days indoors feasting and celebrating, it was nice to stretch my legs and get in a few kilometers outdoors, hiking along the shoreline of West… Read More
“There is a magic in new snow. There is a cleansing, and a freshness that transforms the landscape and, despite the cold temperatures, it warms our weary souls with its brightness and purity.” – Ed Lehming It has been a while, many days of business and work, but I finally got out to create some images. Not just a few snapshots to say I’ve been photographing, but a deliberate time set aside… Read More
“Bounded by ancient stone and lush green brush, the sea ebbs and flows in a timeless rhythm, advancing forward and drawing the land into itself.” – Ed Lehming On the Pacific coast, just below the town of Aliva Beach is a public access spot called Avila Sea Caves. The parking area is just behind where this image was made. The draw of this place is primarily Smuggler’s cave, a large sea cave… Read More
“It’s a strange thing, that an ending brings such joy. Sunsets draw people to the waters edge. It’s almost a time of reverence. Such beauty, different every day, and the calmness that ensues as light fades and bathes the worth in gold.” – Ed Lehming I have to say, my visit to Moonstone Beach last month was an absolute pleasure. I have not been spending nearly enough time outdoors with my camera… Read More
“The forces of nature affect everything. Though the mighty may resist, over time, nature still leaves her mark.” – Ed Lehming This image may be the departure, for a while at least, from my re-imagined series of photos which I have shared over the past few weeks. With spring on our doorstep, the colour shift is already underway and that change affects the colours of the modified images. I find them less… Read More
“In the forest, old is replaced by new. The old growth shelters the new, yielding just enough light to allow it to thrive, while still protecting it.” – Ed Lehming This image was inspired simply by what I thought was an interesting winter composition. Freshly fallen snow from the day before covered the young spruce trees in a planted grove of red pine. It also caused my to dig a bit more… Read More
“There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.” ― Aldo Leopold I instantly fell in love with this quote. Spending any time at all on a working farm makes you realize just how precarious our food supply can be, that it requires constant work to yield any kind of crop,… Read More
“Nature is filled with surprises. It’s the unusual that we notice. That’s what I love about being in it, there is always something new to make you wonder, How did that happen?” – Ed Lehming This is a new one to me, and as I stated in the quote above, nature always has surprises for me. Now, I have seen a single variant like this. Right behind our camper and directly outside… Read More
“Like all sweet dreams, it will be brief, but brevity makes sweetness, doesn’t it?” ― Stephen King Much of the conservation land surrounding my home, including parks and hiking trails, was, at some not too distant time, farmland. It’s difficult to visualize, as I walk through now forested areas. Every now and then though, evidence of former use makes itself known. On one particular site, many perennial sweet peas can be found… Read More
“And suddenly you know: It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.” ― Meister Eckhart The feeling is there, the air warms, and bird song permeates the mornings. Spring is afoot and new growth begins to show signs of the forest stirring from its long slumber. On a walk this past weekend, triggered by nicer weather and seeing the Coltsfoot blooming in roadside ditches, my eye was keen to… Read More
“Ice contains no future , just the past, sealed away. As if they’re alive, everything in the world is sealed up inside, clear and distinct. Ice can preserve all kinds of things that way- cleanly, clearly. That’s the essence of ice, the role it plays.” ― Haruki Murakami The image I chose for today was made a few days ago, as I hiked through a local conservation area. I came across a… Read More
“Everything turns in circles and spirals with the cosmic heart until infinity. Everything has a vibration that spirals inward or outward — and everything turns together in the same direction at the same time. This vibration keeps going: it becomes born and expands or closes and destructs — only to repeat the cycle again in opposite current. Like a lotus, it opens or closes, dies and is born again. Such is also… Read More
“I don’t think there’s anything on this planet that more trumpets life that the sunflower. For me that’s because of the reason behind its name. Not because it looks like the sun but because it follows the sun. During the course of the day, the head tracks the journey of the sun across the sky. A satellite dish for sunshine. Wherever light is, no matter how weak, these flowers will find it…. Read More
“…lace is formed from the absence of substance; it is imagined in the spaces between the threads. Lace is a thing like hope. It lived, it survived, and it was desired for what it was not. If faith, as the nuns said, was the substance of things hoped for, then lace was the outline – the suggestion – of things not seen.” ― Iris Anthony How appropriate is the name of this… Read More
“A garden should make you feel you’ve entered privileged space — a place not just set apart but reverberant — and it seems to me that, to achieve this, the gardener must put some kind of twist on the existing landscape, turn its prose into something nearer poetry.” ― Michael Pollan I thought I would try this technique on leafy plants and expand from my blossom photos. We have several varieties of… Read More
I saw a post by Norm 2.0 this morning and thought I’d like to play along through this contribution to the ‘Tuesdays of Texture’ stream hosted by Narami at De Monte Y Mar. Textures are everywhere and I can hardly turn of the desire to document them. The image above appeared in a northern Ontario parking lot after an intense rainstorm. The ‘wash’ had ‘classified’, the sand into distinct layers, based on their… Read More
“All in all, it was a never-to-be-forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world.” ― L.M. Montgomery My final memory of an extended weekend away is… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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